Those entering the Cedar Creek Corrections Center in South Thurston County will now be greeted by a totem pole carved, painted and awakened by indigenous inmates and their supporters and tasked with protecting every living thing inside and outside of the facility.
“I have brought my family spirit here to protect everyone,” said Albert Smith, an inmate at the center who carved the pole. “I asked that of this pole when I first started carving it.”
Smith, with a group of other Native American inmates, led a ceremony in front of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center on Monday afternoon to celebrate and awaken the new totem pole they carved on the grounds.
Shrouded in the smoke of ceremonial herbs, attendees listened to songs, prayers and powerful stories.
Staff and leaders of Washington state's Department of Corrections (DOC) and Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), along with members of the Native American cultural non-profit Unkitawa, attended the ceremony and spoke.
They also celebrated what the state hopes will be a sustainable carving program at the facility.
The pole, according to many at the ceremony, including the facility’s Superintendent Michael Douglass, is likely the first to be properly raised on the grounds of one of the state's corrections facilities.
It's also likely the only one to be carved on the grounds of that same facility.
“I’ve been in the DOC for 23 years and I’ve never seen a totem pole dedication,” Douglass said.
During the ceremony, the pole was “awakened and brought to life” by a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. Walter Lewis, using an eagle feathers, fanned the smoke over the totem pole as he sang a traditional song asking the creator to bring the pole to life so it could watch over and protect all those nearby.
“May this take care of your guys’ land here and watch over you guys in that sacred way that our people walk with, in the heart of our old people,” Lewis said.
Before his song and prayer, Lewis walked back and forth in front of the pole, thanking the pole carvers and others who supported the program to carve it. He also thanked the cedar tree it was carved from and all other cedar trees, which he referred to as the old people.
After the awakening, Smith told the story that inspired the design of the pole, which depicts the faces of the “mother moon,” “grandpa beaver,” man and eagle, with the large colorful bird spreading its wings at the top.
As Smith’s story goes, the bear people searched for a way to hold the spring runoff in one place so their old and young could drink fresh water in the spring and summer. To do so, they offered tobacco to the moon and asked her to give new wings to Eagle, who could fly to Grandpa Beaver and ask him to dam the river in the spring.
The story tells of unity, cooperation and caring between all living things, all values on display Monday afternoon as members of DOC, DCYF, Unkitawa and incarcerated residents gathered together to celebrate the totem pole and, hopefully, many more to be carved in the future.
“All living creatures will walk in harmony with man from this day forward,” Smith said.
Smith also shared the physical origins of the pole, which was brought to the facility roughly 20 years ago in the form of two cedar logs. He had planned to carve a pole from the cedar many years ago, but that never came to fruition.
The pieces of cedar were left on their sides partway through the drying process. Because of that, they dried unevenly and warped and cracked. Smith came back to them not long ago and, as he put it, he spoke to the cedar tree and knew that he could make a totem pole from it.
Facility staff, including Corrections Project Manager Jean Anderson and Plant Manager John Johnson, said the most recent carving effort started roughly two years ago when Smith came to them and asked for the equipment and time to carve a pole on the grounds.
The pole honored on Monday is now the 11th pole Smith has carved in his life. He learned the craft many years earlier when he was 15 from his uncles. They, like his mother, were Suquamish people and passed down their tradition to him.
Smith also carved the second cedar pole into a totem pole, but left it unpainted. It is his 10th pole. It was on its side supported by two metal stands close by during Monday’s ceremony.
According to Smith, the first time he carved a pole on the grounds of Cedar Creek, he did it in the winter in a small temporary shelter shivering, but doing his best to prove to the staff he was serious about carving totem poles on the grounds.
“They didn't think I could do it,” he said.
Now that request has turned into a cultural carving program at the facility. The program is a partnership on many levels. Members of DOC, Unkitawa and incarcerated tribal residents have worked together to set up carving at the Cedar Creek facility. They have also coordinated with DCYF to bring trees fit for carving and cut down around Echo Glen Children’s Center to Cedar Creek to sustain the program.
Echo Glen Children’s Center in King County, near the small city of Snoqualmie, is cutting trees to clear the way for an exterior fence around the facility after seven teenagers managed to escape the facility in 2023.
Jeremy Garretson, a member of the Northern Arapaho Nation and Unkitawa, a formerly incarcerated individual and DOC and DCYF contract manager, said during the ceremony the pole and the program that made it happen represented caring and community safety and showed that those in the state's corrections system and their cultures matter.
“That all starts with the encouragement that we're doing right here today to show all these men, we stand behind them,” Garretson said. “We support them. We're going to be here to ensure success, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.”
Garretson insisted that his role in the grand scheme of things was small, but he, as a member of both Unkitawa, DOC and DCYF, helped coordinate the agreement to bring new poles to Cedar Creek.
DOC Tribal Relations Director and member of the Colville Tribe Colleen Cawston gave the closing remarks for the ceremony. Dressed in traditional tribal clothing, she stood in front of the recently awakened totem pole and thanked all in attendance and gave a closing prayer.
She also shared a last message of hope for those that helped carve the pole and for a continuing support for indigenous culture in the DOC.
“I am very honored that we here do support having these things happen,” Cawston said. “We encourage it because idle hands as we all know can do harmful things. Busy hands create.”
